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Soil samples were collected monthly from a forest in the sub-Himalayan alluvial plains. The influence of four major edaphic factors on the abundance fluctuation of microarthropod assemblages were investigated. Soil temperature and organic carbon exhibited significant (p < 0.05) negative and positive correlations respectively with the abundance while the soil moisture and pH appeared of less importance. Four edaphic factors collectively can explain from 37.1 to 53.7% abundance fluctuation as the multiple regression analyses indicated. Result of stepwise regression substantiated the observations made in correlation analysis. Relatively high temperature in the region appeared to be the reason for significant negative correlation, fluctuations of organic carbon were parallel to the monthly waves of abundances, sufficient soil moisture and narrow range of variation of pH appeared to account for their relatively inconspicuous impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: There are very limited data regarding clinical, radiological and etiological aspects of malignant pleural effusion (MPE) from Eastern India.Aims: To review natural history, clinical features, radiological features and etiology of MPEs.Setting and Design: Hospital based cross-sectional descriptive study.Materials and Methods: We had reviewed166 diagnosed cases of MPEsregarding demography; clinical, radiological and biochemical characteristics, diagnostic modalities and etiologies.Results: Out of 166 patients, 72.89% were males and 27.11% were females. Mean age of presentation among males was 64.3 ± 12.7 and among females was 52.5 ± 14.8. Most common presenting symptom was dry cough (87.9%) and most common presenting sign was clubbing (54.5%). Massive effusion was found in 45.78% of cases. Pleural fluid macroscopic appearance was haemorrhagic in 54.82% of cases. Mean adenosine deaminase activity in MPE was 24.05 U/L. Mean pleural fluid/serum protein ratio was 0.65, mean pleural fluid/serum lactate dehydrogenase ratio was 1.01. Most of the cases (84.94%) were diagnosed by pleural fluid cytology for malignant cells. Primary cancer was diagnosed in 136 (81.93%) cases; among which 121 (88.97%) cases were lung cancers, among which adenocarcinoma (52.89%) was the most common histology.Conclusions: Pleural fluid cytologies for malignant cells are usually sufficient to diagnose MPE in nearly 85% of cases and in remaining cases if thoracoscopyis not available, blind pleural biopsy can be helpful. The most common primary in cases of MPE is lung cancer with adenocarcinoma being the commonest culprit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chintamani Abhayaranya in South 24-Parganas, West Bengal has an exposure to anthropogenic stress for its location. Soil mites here, constituted more than 73% of the population of soil microarthropods. Oribatid mites were found to be the most numerically abundant group among the soil mites, followed by order Mesostigmata. Population maxima and minima of the mite community were recorded during September and May respectively. Soil moisture and organic carbon content of the soil showed strong positive correlation with the abundance of mite population. One-way ANOVA revealed significant difference between the seasonal abundances of mite population. Group diversity of mite population was highest during July and lowest during January. No significant correlation, as per rank correlation analysis was noticed between the group diversity and edaphic factors. Regression analysis showed that only a small fraction variabilty of group diversity could be explained separately by four edaphic factors considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]